A pair of Sooners exceeded 20 points as the Oklahoma men improved to 3-0 with an 85-64 win over the Stetson Hatters at Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday.
Dayton transfer Kobe Elvis scored 19 first-half points on the way to a game-high 24 that included four three-pointers, and senior Jalon Moore added 22 in a game that was never really in doubt after the first 10 minutes. It was the third consecutive game that Moore has scored at least 22 points.
True freshman Jeremiah Fears contributed 11 points, and Sam Godwin led the Sooners with another double-digit rebound outings along with eight points. Fears has scored in double figures in all three of Oklahoma's games. With that kind of consistent production, he may find himself in the starting lineup very soon.
Oklahoma has one more home game, against East Texas A&M on Thursday, before heading to the Bahamas for the Battle of Atlantis Tournament over the Thanksgiving holiday. That's when the quality of competition will increase considerably. Several teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 will be participating in that tournament.
Three takeaways from OU's victory over Stetson
- Oklahoma scored almost half of its 85 points in the paint area (48) and 31 points off of 23 Stetson turnovers (creating offense from defense).
- The Sooners' field goal percentage against Stetson was right at 50 percent. OU has shot 50 percent or better in two of its three games.
- It's difficult to determine how good this Sooner team can be until the competition gets stronger, but through three games the team appears to have good chemistry and exhibits the shooting efficiency and the ability to create offense from defense that Porter Moser was hoping for in bringing in 11 newcomers (eight transfers and three freshman recruits). We will have a better picture of what we might expect from the 2024-25 edition of OU men's basketball in its new conference, the SEC.